Contemplating on a New Age
The first post
I remember publishing my first review on Blake’s Buzz. I hadn’t written anything in a long time. Then, out of nowhere, I had this urge to talk about comics, and I needed more space than Twitter would allow.
I remember the excited creators sharing that first article. I’ll never forget the rush from watching that review get passed around the internet. The need to provide a positive discourse led me to write more. These fingers hadn’t struck keys like that in a long while, and it felt good.
I remember recording my first podcast and the nervousness of carrying out my first solo interview. Now, almost 40 episodes later, those nerves still crawl up my spine as I wait in digital green rooms for my guests to arrive. I’m a little more used to it, comfortable in my own skin and confident in my own voice.
I remember the first live stream. Drunk. Chaotic. Scared the power would shut off or the internet would die. Scared that my 9 year old MacBook Air would pop, spark and fizzle out.
I remember my first pull quote. I remember getting the books in the mail and seeing my name on a back cover.
I remember getting an email from a new publisher saying they wanted to make a comic with me. I remember hot tears rolling down my cheeks as I showed the email to my dad. I remember the frantic texts sent by eager, misspelling thumbs. “It’s happening.”
I’m sure I’ll remember this as well. The first Substack post. Another risk to try and establish myself amongst the nerdy competition. I hope it’s the first of many. I hope Blake’s Buzz has just begun and has many years in its future. More episodes. More live streams. More guests that share my passion for sequential art storytelling. More laughs.
And I’ll always remember you. When you listen to me. When you laugh with me. When you tell me that comic I talked about vibed with you. I’ll remember when you donated to help my family after my little cousin died. I’ll remember when you helped me buy my dog a wheelchair and pay her vet bills.
Thanks for coming back, time and time again. I’m excited to make new memories.
Welcome to the dark side 🥷
I'm happy to be here! Thanks man. I think you are on the cutting edge of something new and different. It is the reason I encouraged you to go this route.
Websites are cool, but they are web 1.0 and carried over into web 2.0. But we are headed into web 3.0 and things are rapidly evolving. You can now subscribe to websites and get push notifications of new content. Newsletters are more common than ever because they hit the inbox and you get a notification.
In a world where you can type in 1 domain (gmail.com) or tap one notification (new email) people are less likley to type in a web domain and go there. People are constantly bombarded with new content all day, every day. They need to go to you to find out what is happening, you have to go to them and tell them what is happening.
The inbox is the most powerful place you can be at this point. Signed, sealed, and delivered to the reader without the clutter and distractions of crowded social media platforms.
Don't get me wrong, inboxes are still stuffed and croweded.
But considerably less so since people guard their email inboxes and podcast subscriptions as a place of intimacy and vulnerability. That's why I think this the place to be at the moment.
Pay the fee to do custom domain hosting so that people can easily find the archived reviews and newsletters you will be putting out. I don't know how much you have/are using Substack but I've been using it for a while and I find that when I cite something I read by/about a creator it is super simple to go through archives here and find the info to share.
And maybe I'm the only person on the planet reading newsletters and listening to podcasts.
But I don't think so. I think there is an audience here. And if you can tap into that base you will get the growth you are looking for. Because people like myself wake up every morning and check their email inbox and read all/most of the newsletters there.
But rarely do we consistenly visit a website to get the latest updates.
Best case scenario for that we do a Google search, click the news tab, and visit a site we recognize or one of the top results. Which appear at the top simply because they SEO well.
So I see this as the way to cut through the trolls and the noise and go directly to your fanbase. No SEO games, no link shortening, and no web surfing. All of my favorite writers in one place; my inbox.
I look forward to what you put out. The future is now!